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Wednesday, 25 March 2015

Ignorance is an echo chamber

People are strange creatures in general.

As some of my readers may know, I am not a fanatic of social media. As such it was with a bit of apprehension that I decided to dip my toe into the Google+ communities. Turns out my apprehension was unfounded as I have found that there are some interesting discussions in certain groups and links to blogs/news articles I cannot people even would consider believing. In this way it has also provided me with enough blog material for a long time, or until I get fed up and delete my account.

In the past have found that many creationists blogs on the Internet do not allow comments or ban any commenter that does not agree with them. This makes these cesspit's of misinformation impenetrable to criticism that they so richly deserve. As such I find Google+ way more helpful as there are communities where people are willing to discuss and these communities have moderators that are not quick on the draw with the mute function. However, there are other communities that are not communities as such but are echo chamber for blogs. In fact after asking a simple question at one "community" I got permanently muted. Maybe my name was too much for the moderator?

My point is why would anyone not be prepared to defend any position. Or even if they do not want to engage, why would a person mute you? Sure, if a person is being slanderous, I can understand muting them. If a person is asking questions, why would you want to mute them. It shows you are an ignorant village idiot that just wants to hear the applause of like minded fools. I want people to question everything I write, I want outrage. On the other hand, I don't want flame wars and slanderous comments. Importantly, I really do not mind dissenting opinions after all the people responding to comments should be open to defending their ideas. This is what positive skepticism entails.

Lastly, on Google+ the one awesome aspect is that even if you are banned you can reshare posts and criticize them anyway. :D